Southern Germany Sampler: Staufen

From Mainau Island, we drove to Staufen, in the Black Forest.  We stayed at Hotel zum Hirschen, which was recommended in both of our travel guides.  The accommodations were adequate, though not exceptional.  The restaurant was amazing, but more on that later.

 Pedestrian area in front of hotel:

 A few steps away from our hotel is the meeting place for the town's wine co-op.  They offer free wine tastings during the week from 4-6pm.  We missed the 6pm free tasting window, but enjoyed some delicious wines by the glass. The streets are lined with canals, which K loved stepping back and forth over.

 Near the co-op was an old wine press, which K used as a ramp for his cars.

 After drinking some great local wine, we strolled back to our hotel's restaurant, where we had the best meal of our entire trip.
We started with an appetizer of black forest ham, accompanied by more yummy local wine.

 K had a vegetable plate and pasta, and a comfy high chair.  They were very kid-friendly here.

 I had fresh Norwegian salmon with veggies, which was some of the best salmon I've ever had in my life.

 And Matt had pork in a mushroom cream sauce, which was also phenomenal.

 We finished up with dessert: homemade black forest cake and homemade schnapps.  Both amazing.

Afterwards, we collapsed into a food coma.